On the 16 July, I took part in a Spotlight Saturday event at the UK’s National Army Museum in London. Organised by the Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Association the event commemorated the 100th anniversary of the disbandment of the British Army’s Machine Gun Corps but also commemorated the legacy of the Vickers Machine Gun itself and all the other units which used it during its service between 1912 and 1968.
The displays outlined the history and legacy of the Vickers Gun, with displays looking at the logistics of using the Vickers in the field, how they were used with range finders, the mechanisation of the British Army, the barrage at High Wood during the First World War, the kit used with the guns and how the guns themselves worked. Also on display were Robbie McGuire’s documentaries about the members of the Machine Gun Corps who were awarded the Victoria Cross and Adam Blackmore-Heal’s documentary about the shoot at Bisley a couple of weeks earlier.
It was great to see and speak to so many people who wanted to learn more about the Vickers Gun and then men who used them during the guns’ near 60 year service life.
I had the pleasure of giving a talk about how the vickers was used in the indirect fire role and I’ll be sharing that as a separate video in the future. This video is just a quick walk around showing some of the exhibits and kit that were on display. I highly recommend heading over to the Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Association’s YouTube channel and checking out their videos from the event too.
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A couple of weeks ago I had the honour of taking part in a shoot at Bisley to commemorate the disbandment of the British Army’s Machine Gun Corps. The Corps was formed in 1915 and disbanded in July 1922. They left an important legacy of skills and doctrine for machine gun use which remains with the British Army today.
Myself an TJ manning a Nepalese contract Vickers Gun during the shoot. We portrayed members of the Guard Machine Gun Regiment (all photos courtesy of Adam Blackmore-Heal)
The shoot was organised by my friend Rich Fisher of the Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Association. The shoot gathered 16 Vickers Machine Guns, the equivalent of a First World War Machine Gun Corps company. Each gun represented a different period of the British Army’s use of the Vickers Gun from 1912 all the way through to 1968, when it finally went out of service.
Throughout the day I captured some behind the scenes footage and Rich Willis was kind enough to run my camera for me during the shoot when I had my hands full. This was the first time this many guns had been fired together in 20 years and all in all around 16,000 rounds were fired and over 700 people turned out to watch the event.
Not only did the day illustrate the impressive volume of fire that the guns were capable of but it also put their lethality into perspective. The shoot illustrated the devastation the weapons could bring and the important legacy of the men who manned them.
I highly recommend visiting the Vickers Machine Gun Collection & Research Association’s YouTube channel to watch the stream of the full 45 minute shoot, a brilliant 360-degree view video which puts you right on the firing point and a really special 20 minute mini documentary about the shoot.
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The M50 is one of the quintessential early Cold War submachine guns. Cheap, simple and utilitarian. It evolved from the earlier M46 and was developed by Dansk Industri Syndikat in Denmark. The M50 has a simple blowback action, is chambered in 9×19mm and feeds from 32-round double stack single feed magazines.
The weapon’s has a clam-shell like receiver that hinges at the rear and allows the barrel, bolt and recoil spring to be removed. The M50’s folding stock has a leather cover and while the length of pull is a little short it provides a decent cheek weld.
Madsen M50 (Matthew Moss)
The M50 has a relatively slow rate of fire of around 500 rounds per minute which makes it very easy to make single shots while in full-auto. The sights are extremely simple with a single rear peep sight.
It has manual safety switch on the left side of the receiver which locks the sear in place and a spring-loaded grip safety just behind the magazine well. The amount of pressure needed to disengage it is minimal and a firm firing grip of the magazine is all that is needed.
Right side of the Madsen M50 with stock folded (Matthew Moss)
The Madsen went through a number of changes with various models having different magazine release types, selectors and manual safety positions. The M53 introduced in 1953, fed from a curved magazine and had an improved magazine release. Some models had an additional fire-selector and the safety moved back above the trigger. Some models retained the forward grip safety while others moved it to behind the pistol grip. Some patterns of M53 also had a barrel shroud for mounting a bayonet as well as added wooden panels on the pistol grip.
Left side of the Madsen M50 with stock deployed and magazine removed, not the improved magazine release (Matthew Moss)
We’ll have a more in-depth look at the Madsen M50 in the future looking at the various models in some more detail.
Special thanks to my friend Chuck at Gunlab for letting me take a look at his M50.
A month ago I posted a short video from a range trip shooting the Remington M1917 at about 100m, getting a feel for the rifle and checking zero. I said in that video that I was planning on stretching the M1917s legs in the near future and last week I got the chance. I had the opportunity to shoot the rifle out to 700 yards (640m) which was a lot of fun.
The view down range from the firing point (Matthew Moss)
With some 147gr S&B I managed a half decent score only missing twice out of 20 rounds. I’ve never shot out to 700 yards especially not with iron sights so it was a fun challenge, amazingly my last round was a bull, which was a real bonus!
Introduce in British service in 1938, the Bren remained in use into the 1990s. Based upon the Czechoslovakian series of ZB light machine guns, its name comes from an amalgamation of its origins: BR for Brno, the factory in Czechoslovakia, and EN for RSAF Enfield where it had been adapted for British service and was to be produced.
The Bren is chambered in .303, is gas operated and fires from an open bolt. It feeds from a top-mounted 30 round box magazine, as such the sights are offset to the left meaning the Bren can only be fired from the right shoulder – which as a lefty, I quickly realised.
Bren Mk1(Modified) (Matthew Moss)
This example does not have the scope mounting dovetail machined into the left side of its receiver, or the folding grip and the hinged shoulder rest indicating that it is a Mk1 (Modified) ‘Pattern A’ gun, which was introduced after the evacuation of Dunkirk, the British Expeditionary Force lost most of the 30,000 Brens that had been taken to France. Only around 2,000 remained in inventory in the summer of 1940, so increasing production was essential, this model and the even more simplified MkII were introduced. While at the same time the BESAL light machine gun was developed as an emergency alternative by BSA – check out our earlier video on the BESAL here.
The BSA-developed BESAL light machine gun (Matthew Moss)
As a Mk1, the gun has the original profile buttstock, with the fitting for a rear folding grip and tripod attachment point as well as a buttcap. It also has the drum rear sight rather than the later ladder sight of the Mk2 & 3. It also had a folding cocking handle and this Mk1(M) gun also has the earlier pattern height adjustable, rather than fixed, bipod legs. This gun is marked ‘MK1, with an E within a D, 1942’ indicating it was made at RSAF Enfield.
Bren Mk1(Modified) with magazine off and dust cover closed, note the drum sight but lack of receiver cut for optic (Matthew Moss)
The Bren’s relatively slow rate of fire (of around 500 rounds per minute) makes it controllable and very easy to fire single shots while in full auto. The Bren does, however, have a selector on the left side of the gun, just above the trigger guard, which can be set to safe, semi or fully automatic. The Bren has a rocking recoil impulse as its heavy bolt moves back and forth, easily manageable if held tightly into the shoulder with the off-hand holding onto the wrist of the stock. The top-mounted magazine when fully loaded does have a tendency to want to fall to the side but once you’re used to this it’s not really an issue. The legend surrounding the accuracy of the Bren is certainly somewhat valid, at the time it was recognised as an accurate weapon and I found it accurate from my short time behind the trigger. I found the Mk1’s rear sight aperture and drum adjustment easy to use.
Spent cases eject out of the bottom of the receiver, the weapon had a sliding dust cover for when the magazine was removed and the charging handle is non reciprocating and folds forward.
Bren Mk1(Modified) with magazine off, dust cover closed and barrel removed (Matthew Moss)
The Bren has a quick change barrel system. To remove the barrel the release catch in front of the magazine was rotated upwards to unlock and then the barrel was rotated 90 degrees clockwise by bringing the carrying handle up to the 12 o’clock position and then sliding it forward.
We’ll have a more in-depth look at the Bren and its Czech predecessors in the future. My thanks to my friend Chuck over at Gunlab for letting me put some rounds through his Bren, I got a real kick out of it!
Today’s episode is the last video of 2018, so we thought we’d end the year with a bang, literally. Earlier this year Matt had the chance to get behind an original Browning M1919A4 so we’ve put together a video showing the classic belt-fed machine gun in action with some slow motion footage thrown in!
Browning M1919A4 (Matthew Moss)
This M1919A4 was built in 1944 at GM’s Saginaw Steering Division plant, in Saginaw Michigan. It was one of nearly half a million M1919A4s built during World War Two. In the video Matt explains a little of the gun’s history and how it worked.
M1919A4 with its feed cover open (Matthew Moss)
This M1919 has been rechambered from the original .30-06 to 7.62x51mm NATO and uses M13 disintegrating links rather than a cloth belt or M1 disintegrating links. My thanks to Chuck and his buddy over at GunLab for letting me put several belts through his gun, it was a lot of fun.
We’ll have a full, in-depth, episode on the Browning M1919 in the future.
Thanks to everyone for watching, liking, subscribing and commenting on our videos this year, we can’t tell you how much we appreciate all the support we have received. I’m very pleased to say we reached 3,000 subscribers before the end of the year, very pleased that our community is growing! We have much more to come in 2019, and we’ll be back with regular videos in January.
This video marks our 40th episode, thanks for watching/reading, lots more to come!
In this episode Matt had the chance to put a few rounds through a replica of a Gerat 06(H). German development of the 06(H) began at Mauser in mid-1944. The 06(H), sometimes referred to as the StG 45(M), was developed from the earlier Gerat 06 which used a gas operated, roller-locked action designed by Wilhelm Stahle.
Top: Gerat 06(H) Bottom: Gerat 06 (Matthew Moss)
One of Mauser’s scientists, Dr Carl Maier, analysed the 06’s action and noticed bolt bounce before the action locked. From this he calculated that the heavy gas system could be removed and the bolt simplified by using a roller delayed, rather than locked, blowback action. This is where the rifle gets its “H” suffix, meaning “half-locked”.
Gerat 06(H) (Matthew Moss)
The rifle is chambered in 7.92×33 Kurz, feeding from a 30-round StG-44 magazine. It has a stamped sheet metal receiver and an in-line layout, sending the recoil impulse straight back. Despite being lighter than the 06, the 06(H) is equally controllable and handier than its heavier predecessor.
The 06(H) is the genesis of the roller-delayed blowback action line of rifles that progressed through work at CEAM in France, developments in Spain at CETME and finally back in Germany at HK. We’ll have a full video discussing the design, development and history of both the 06 and 06(H) in the future and we’ll also delve deeper into the evolution of the roller-delayed blowback system and the rifles that used it.
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Thanks to our friend Chuck over at GunLab for allowing me to shoot his replica 06(H) and helping with filming.
The second in our series of short live fire and slow motion videos looks a reproduction of a Rheinmetall Volkssturm Carbine. Matt had the opportunity to fire a replica of the little known bolt action and captured some great video.
Rheinmetall developed the carbine at the very end of the war for the Primitive Waffen program which was intended to arm the Volkssturm (a militia unit). Chambered in 7.92×33 Kurz the carbine has a simple two-lug rotating bolt.
It’s a handy little rifle and quite pleasant to shoot, the 7.92 Kurz chambering would have made it ideal for poorly trained Volkssturm members thrust into the fighting on the Eastern Front. The carbine, however, was never fielded and only a handful were built.
We’ll discuss the development, design and history of the rifle in an upcoming full-length video, so stay tuned for that!
My thanks to Chuck Kramer of Gun Lab for helping make this video happen, check out his blog here.
Correction:
The carbine was originally described as a replica of an ErmaWerke Volkssturm Carbine when in fact it is largely based on a Volkssturm carbine prototype captured at Rheinmetall’s factory at the end of the war. While both the Ermawerke and Rheinmetall carbines are chambered in 7.92mm Kurz and share a number of similarities they are distinct designs.
This is explained in our full video and blog on the Rheinmetall Volkssturm carbine here.
In this episode we bring you our first live fire and slow motion footage! Matt had the opportunity to fire a British L2A3 Sterling submachine gun and Vic captured some great video. The Sterling was adopted by the British military in 1954 and standardised as the L2A3 in 1956.
Designed by George Patchett, at the Sterling Armaments Company, development began towards the end of the Second World War. After a decade of development and testing the British Army adopted the Sterling. It remained in service into the 1990s and Sterling produced and sold the gun overseas until the company closed in the late 1980s. Licensed versions of the Sterling were made in Canada and production continues today in India.
While the Sterling Armaments Company, the original developers and manufacturer of the gun, produced L2A3s for the government and the commercial market most of the British Army’s Sterlings were made by the government owned Royal Ordnance Factory in Fazakerly near Liverpool.
The gun featured in the video is a Fazakerly-made British Army L2A3, the magazine is also of the slightly simplified government pattern.
Frame from the slow motion footage showing a spent 9x19mm case being ejected from the L2A3 (TAB)
In this episode we look at the firing cycle of the L2A3 and how the weapon works. The Sterling uses a standard blowback action and this footage shows it firing in semi-automatic. We can see the breech block travel forward, strip a round from the magazine and chamber it. The round is fired and the breech block then travels rearward again before repeating the cycle.
In future videos we will discuss in-depth the design, development and history of the Sterling.
We would like to thank Graham over at www.slomocamco.com for the loan of the brilliant slow motion camera which captured this great footage!
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The Armourers Bench 